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A
quest for identity - Nelson Graburn
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Shifting
the boundaries of interpretation: old environments,
new visions - Patricia Sterry
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'The
traveller with his heavy load is in need of a friend..." -
Terry Stevens
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Te
Papa: an invitation for redefinition - William
Tramposch
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'The
world of the Cistercians': an ancient monastery becomes
a modern museum - Mihail Moldoveanu
Innovation
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Recounting
an ongoing adventure: the Cité de l'Espace in Toulouse - Roger
Lesgards
Viewpoint
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For
an island museology in the Caribbean - Jean-Pierre
Maréchal
Management
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Museums:
a door to the future - Raili Huopainen
Conservation
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The
Pavia Document: towards a European profile of the conservator-restorer
- Gaël de Guichen
Summary
of Articles
That the growth
of tourism has contributed to the radical changes in
museums over the past few years is unquestionable; that
these changes have been welcomed or even understood
by the entire museum community is less certain. Yani
Herreman sets out the main issues that must be addressed
if we are to have a better understanding of the reciprocal
impact that museums and tourism have on each other.
The author, an architect, is head of the Promotion and
Cultural Action Unit of the Autonomous University of
Mexico and former director of the city museums of Mexico
and of the National History Museum. She is a member
of the ICOM Executive Council and President of the International
Committee of Architecture and Museum Techniques.
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A
quest for identity
Nelson Graburn
The competing
demands on museums will increase as the number and diversity
of visitors continues to grow. As they vie as never
before with a broad panoply of new centres of interest,
museums face a host of demands from a clientele ever
more avid for stimulation, entertainment and challenge.
The implications of such a transformation of the museum-going
public are described by Nelson Graburn, professor of
anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley,
since 1964, and, since 1972, Curator of North American
Ethnology at the Hearst (formerly Lowie) Museum there.
Among his books are Ethnic and Tourist Arts
(1976) and Catalogue Raisonné of the Alaska Commercial
Company Collection (1996), both published by the
University of California Press.
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Shifting
the boundaries of interpretation: old environments,
new visions
Patricia Sterry
Based on themes
rather than collections, Heritage Centres provide a
new and different approach to exhibiting the past, placing
it, in Patricia Sterry’s words, ‘on display,
but not out of reach.’ Neither museum nor theme
park, they challenge a number of sacrosanct notions
attached to the very word ‘heritage.’ The
author is a senior lecturer in Design History at the
University of Salford, UK, and Course Leader of a Post
Graduate Masters degree in Heritage Studies: Interpretation,
Presentation and Design.
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‘The
traveller with his heavy load is in need of a friend...’
Terry Stevens
Museums, says
Terry Stevens, are not merely the passive recipients
of tourist visits, they have an active role to play
in ‘brokering’ a mutually beneficial exchange
between tourists and the host culture. What’s more,
they can and should serve as the cornerstone of coherent,
culturally sensitive tourism policies. The author is
Development Director (Britain) for Tourism Development
International, and Director of Stevens Associates, who
are involved in projects concerning tourism and leisure
planning, management and training.
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Te
Papa: an invitation for redefinition
William Tramposch
‘For
museums, the challenge is one of future positioning
rather than of simply coping with current realities.’
In a nutshell, William Tramposch sets out what he views
as the central issue facing museums as they grapple
with tourism growth, seen here not as a ‘momentary
phenomenon’ but as an irrevocable international
trend. The author served as Vice-Chair of US/ICOM until
assuming the position of Director of Museum Resources
at Te Papa, The Museum of New Zealand. During
his twenty-two years in the field, he has served as
a director at The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation,
Executive Director of the Oregon Historical Society,
and President of the New York State Historical Association.
In 1986 and 1988, he was awarded Fulbright Fellowships
to teach and write in New Zealand.
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‘The
world of the Cistercians’: an ancient monastery
becomes a modern museum
Mihail Moldoveanu
The ever-pressing
demands of mass tourism can even result in the creation
of a museum where none existed before. The Monastery
of Santes Creus in Spain’s Catalonia is just such
an example, for through an audacious mix of state-of-the-art
multimedia design and fourteenth century vestiges, it
has integrated scenographic, lighting and narrative
techniques borrowed from the theatre to allow visitors
to enter into the everyday life of the Cistercian order,
once one of the most widespread in mediaeval Europe.
Mihail Moldoveanu is a freelance photographer and writer
based in Paris.
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Recounting
an ongoing adventure: the Cité de l'Espace in
Toulouse
Roger Lesgards
A newcomer
to the field of air and space museums has already made
its mark in France, on the site of Western Europe’s
largest complex of space related activities. Telling
the story of space to youngsters and experts alike,
it boasts state-of-the-art technology, and is backed
by strong local teamwork and support. Roger Lesgards
is project director for the Cité de l'Espace and former
president of the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie
at La Villette in Paris. He also served as Secretary-general
of France’s National Centre for Space Research.
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For
an island museology in the Caribbean
Jean-Philippe Maréchal
The museums
of the Caribbean face a unique set of problems, due
in large measure to their isolation and their extraordinarily
rich and varied heritage, both of which pose a particular
challenge to co-operative efforts. Yet, positive steps
have been taken to link them more closely and to focus
on their role in preserving the region’s natural
environment. The author holds a masters degree in oceanography
from the Université de Paris VI and a DEA (preliminary
PhD certificate) in museology from the Museum National
d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris. He is a museologist
in a private company, the Chalutier Victor Pleven (Victor
Pleven’s trawler), which has been converted into
the Musée de la Grande Pêche, in Lorient, France.
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Museums:
a door to the future
Raili Huopainen
In
the Museum of the Future
was the title of an ambitious project to set out the
various possible paths that lay ahead for museums
in Finland. As Raili Huopainen describes it, the goal
was not to imagine a ‘museum of tomorrow’,
but to use the highly developed methods and techniques
of futurology in museum planning. She played a significant
role in the project and is director of the Provincial
Museum of Lapland, which received the Council of Europe
Museum Award in 1994. In 1995-1997 she worked on museum
activities for the National Board of Antiquities and
is now developing a project on cultural investments
as a part of the structure of economic life in the
town of Rovaniemi.
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The
‘Pavia Document’: towards a European profile
of the conservator-restorer
Gaël de Guichen
Forty-five
experts in the field of conservation and restoration
from sixteen European countries met in Pavia (Italy)
from 18-22 October 1997 at a European Summit entitled
‘Preservation of Cultural Heritage: towards a European
profile of the Conservator-Restorer’. The purpose
was to identify common guidelines to propose to the
various institutions of the European Union so as to
encourage the adoption of concrete measures which would
clearly define the role of the conservator-restorer.
Their deliberations resulted in the unanimous adoption
of ‘The Document of Pavia’. Gaël de Guichen,
Assistant Director-General of the International Centre
for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of
Cultural Property (ICCROM) in Rome, was there and explains
why this was a watershed in the affirmation and recognition
of the profession of conservator-restorer.
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